ORONO — Approximately 20 people attended a University of Maine College Republicans meeting Wednesday featuring Maine Republican Party chairman Charlie Webster as a guest speaker.

But only three were Republicans, and the crowd was overwhelmingly hostile.

The meeting lasted more than two hours with Webster and Rep. Douglas Damon, R-Bangor, defending state Republican policies under intense questioning from students, many of whom self-identified as Democrats.

Webster minced no words. He said most Democrats are “elitist.” He called United States Rep. Chellie Pingree “an embarrassment,” as she is at the political “left of her own party.”

He also said “millions” could be cut from state welfare programs.

“Nobody is going to starve in this country,” he said. “If you can’t make a living in 40 hours a week, work 80, or go without.”

He also called out President Barack Obama, saying “everything he believes in is wrong.” He “will lose” the 2012 presidential election, and he “is hated in this country.”

“He doesn’t support free enterprise, free markets,” Webster said. “If we got the government the hell out of the way, we’d have jobs.”

Webster defended controversial newspaper advertisements his organization placed at the tail end of this year’s campaign season, saying they were “appropriate and necessary” to spreading a message that $141,000 in the 2010 election went to Democratic campaigns from Equality Maine, a group advocating marriage equality.

The advertisements, aimed at gathering support to oppose Question 1, which asked voters if they wanted to veto a Republican-backed law repealing Election Day registration, appeared in a number of community newspapers reading “In the 2010 elections, EqualityMaine donated $141,000 for the election of Democrat candidates to the Maine Legislature” and “Why is this special interest group so interested in repealing Maine election laws?”

The ad campaign was seen by many as an attempt to confuse the ballot issue and sway opponents of same-sex marriage. The “yes” side of Question 1 won a landslide victory by a margin of 60 to 40 percent, upholding same-day registration statewide.

Damon, speaking less than Webster, struck a more moderate tone.

Defending Republican policies, he said he didn’t agree with much of what Webster said. Damon outlined his party’s goals in the upcoming legislative session — citing a law he sponsored earlier this year legalizing fireworks but leaving regulation up to individual communities.

“One of the things about Republicans is local control,” he said. “There’s more of that coming.”

Damon also said “right-to-work” legislation, which would prohibit agreements that make paying union dues or unionizing a qualifier for employment, “is something Republicans want to do” in the upcoming session.

A long conversation ensued on gay marriage. Webster defended what he saw as marriage equality supporters’ “problem” in getting marriage equality laws enacted.

“A lot of people, they just don’t want to think about sexuality in any way,” Webster said. “They’re not discriminating.”

“I don’t support homosexual marriage,” he added.

“If you get marriage, it’ll be something else … trisexuals,” he said off-hand, trailing off and prompting laughter from the audience.

The discussion, mostly going back and forth between students and both Webster and Damon, grew less tense as time went on. After the meeting, students who disagreed with Webster could be seen shaking his hand.

Derek Lane, a third-year political science student and the president of UMaine’s College Democrats chapter, was one of them.

“The only thing he talked about was welfare and gay marriage,” Lane said. “He was very misguided in what he said.”

Eric Lichtenberg, the campus chairman of the College Republicans, said the meeting with Webster was intended to be closed to the public, but word quickly spread.

“I felt bad,” he said. “I felt like I was inviting him into a trap.”

Before Webster arrived, Lichtenberg vetted some attendees’ questions and allowed all who came in to stay.

“I think everyone conducted themselves in a very professional way,” he said.

Surprisingly, little of the conversation surrounded the Question 1 campaign.

In July, Webster gave Secretary of State Charlie Summers a list of 206 college students from the University of Maine, the University of Maine at Farmington, the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus and the University of Maine at Machias who he said were registered to vote both in and outside of Maine.

A subsequent investigation by Summers’ office found 77 were actually registered in two states. Summers said that isn’t a violation unless registrants “intentionally” fail to disclose their previous address, and no students were found to have voted in two places.

After the event, Damon said students who attended must have been longing to talk to Webster.

“The media has demonized him,” Damon said. “It’s never all black and white.”

But Lane said if he were a Republican, he would be rethinking Webster’s efficacy in a leadership position, calling Webster “polarizing for the youth.”

“If the Republican Party wants to survive, they’re going to have to dump Charlie Webster,” Lane said. “Whether they like it or not, he’s their spokesman.”